The Miles Franklin Literary Award 2010

Congratulations to Peter Temple who was awarded the Miles Franklin Literary Award for 2010.

Announced at an award dinner in Sydney on 22 June 2010, Peter Temple was presented this year’s prize of $42,000 for his novel Truth.

Temple’s winning novel is the much anticipated sequel to The Broken Shore and comprehends murder, corruption, family, friends, honour, honesty, deceit, love, betrayal – and truth. A stunning story about contemporary Australian life, Truth is written with great moral sophistication.

On behalf of the judging panel, Morag Fraser commented “It was a controversial and challenging shortlist, accomplished and diverse in many ways that made the judges’ task very difficult. Each novel offered quite a distinct and compelling fictional journey”.

One Response

Though ‘Jasper Jones’ was my first choice, I’m very happy to see ‘Truth’ get up… it’s exciting to see brilliant writing rewarded regardless of the so-called genre (‘Truth’ is often described as crime fiction, and there is plenty of crime and cops in the book, but also far more going on), and while I know that the award is just for this book, Temple’s last (and connected) novel ‘The Broken Shore’ was also fabulous and would have made a worthy winner.
And finally, I’m just a wee bit parochial in my reading, and Truth is a gloriously Melbourne book- from the Westgate Bridge collapse to the Black Saturday bushfires of 2009 to the soulless glass and chrome of the Casino developments and the casual violence and despair of the outer suburbs, Temple never glamourises the city but does make it living, breathing, dirty and real. It’s very much the spectrum of today’s Australia, and for that reason alone (given the criteria of the award) a well deserved winner. Congratulations to Temple!